The End of His Rope

By Steven D. Brewer

Revin and the pirate crew travel to the heart of the kingdom to carry a dire warning about the dangers posed by the device that could end air travel forever.

Trailing the storm, Revin and the pirate crew collect crucial data about the damage caused by a device that could end air travel forever. As they depart, they encounter a downed airship and rescue the crew. But just who are these marooned airmen and what was their mission? The answers will lead them to the heart of the kingdom.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Water Dragon Publishing
• Release date: Dec 23, 2022
• ISBN: 9781957146966

Steven D. Brewer

Steven D. Brewer has been a fan of science fiction and fantasy stories for as long as he can remember. He still remembers getting scolded for not reading chapter books in fourth grade because he was avidly consuming The Hobbit late at night, by flashlight under his covers. And he probably got his copy from his older brother and most important mentor.As an author, Steven identifies diverse obsessions that underlie his writing. His early interest in natural history, life science, and environmentalism he learned from his father, an ecologist and ornithologist. He attributes seeing his mother study German for his abiding passion for languages that led him to major in Spanish (as well as Biology) and subsequently learn Esperanto and use it for international correspondence and travel. His fascination with Japanese culture grew from writing haiku and haibun in Esperanto. And his mania for information technology and the Internet led him back to graduate school where he earned a Masters in Earth Science and a PhD in Science Education.His scattered interests led to an eclectic employment history. He did farm work and food service growing up in southwest Michigan. He has worked as a large-animal caretaker, an archeological faunal analyst, a hunter of the fastest lizards in the world, a gas-station attendant, a bilingual teacher’s aide for a migrant-worker education program, and an edutainer with live animals and a portable planetarium. For the past quarter century, he has served as a non-tenure-system faculty member in higher education.Steven currently teaches scientific writing at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He lives in Amherst, Massachusetts with his extended family.

Book preview

The End of His Rope

Book Five of Revin's Heart

Steven D. Brewer

Copyright © 2022 by Steven D. Brewer

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, except for the purpose of review and/or reference, without explicit permission in writing from the publisher.

Cover design copyright © 2022 by Niki Lenhart

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Published by Water Dragon Publishing

waterdragonpublishing.com

An imprint of Paper Angel Press

paperangelpress.com

978-1-957146-96-6 (EPUB)

FIRST EDITION

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Author’s Note

Finally! The board is almost set, but there are a couple of players we haven't met yet. And yet the pieces are already in motion. Revin is in the heart of things, as usual. Now, cue the music! Bring up the lights! Action!

The End of His Rope

Revin stood in the observation deck of the Queen of Belleriand as she sailed over the boundless ocean. The Queen rode on the trail of the monster storm that had been generated by Havelock’s Etheric Storm Generator. They had been out of sight of land for two days.

Heading! Will called.

Revin consulted the Etheric Deflection Monitor the Professor had constructed. It stood four feet tall in a wooden case with a bell jar affixed to its top. Underneath was a dial with a needle made of eternite that aligned with the slope of etheric flow — or something like that, anyway. Revin was unclear on the details, but the Professor said in simplest terms that, in the absence of other disruptions, it would tend to point toward the dead etheric zone left by the Etheric Storm Generator.

Three-hundred and forty-two degrees! Revin called back. Three! Four! Two!

Three! Four! Two! Will confirmed.

Aye, aye, Cap’n!

Two degrees to port! Will called.

Two degrees to port! Grip repeated from the remmer deck.

In addition to the direction, the monitor also had a dial that indicated the magnitude of the deflection. Revin made a notation of the time, the heading, and the deflection in a small notebook. Revin felt the tiny course adjustment as the Queen sailed on.

Revin found himself increasingly sensitive to everything around the airship. From the sound alone, he could tell whether the sun was shining or behind the clouds. A shift in the wind or minor course correction were now enough to wake him up from a sound sleep. He felt like he was becoming a part of the airship. Or that it increasingly seemed like an extension of his own body.

At the moment, however, his body was telling him something else. He excused himself and went to the lavatory, where he replaced his sodden menstrual pad with a fresh one. He hated this particular aspect of his body, but it was simply a fact of life. He was just grateful it had waited until after he had finished on Havelock. He remembered visiting the baths